For most websites, your first impression starts with your home page. Your aim? To lay the foundation for the relationship, transaction or customer journey that you want your ideal audience to take.

But your home page and any subsequent conversion improvement is a bit like precarious seesaw: it has to resonate, but not overwhelm. Provide information, but not get bogged down in the details. It’s a delicate balancing act…but it can be done.

A brief disclaimer: at present, the cobbler’s children don’t wear shoes. And with the aphorism, I mean that my home page isn’t quite perfect yet. There are paragraphs I need to cut, icons I need to move, and whole text I’d like to rewrite. But all in good time.

Nonetheless, if you want to improve your bounce rate and provide the perfect springboard for the rest of your website, here are some tips to get you there.

5 easy ways to turn your home page into your best salesperson

Write for the human, not the machine

I’ve written before about the client who insisted on cramming his headline with nonsensical SEO. In a word, NO. It does not convert. It could potentially score you a small increase in traffic if your H1 tag was Buy Rompers Online, but no one will stick around with an unfriendly headline like that.

Why?

Because I don’t want to just Buy Rompers Online.

I want to make my legs look longer, and solve the huge fashion dilemma of what top to wear with what bottom.

Here’s how Nasty Gal does it to sell their rompers:

Add value to your headline

One common problem with headlines is communicating your value. People think it’s the features of their products – fast service, leather soles, a collaborative interface – and these are important, yes. But your audience wants to know what you can do for them, not what you do intrinsically.

Here’s how MindValley, an online platform for personal growth development, creates a value proposition for their products:

Keep it simple

I know it can be easy to get carried away with widgets and icons and logos, but you need to fall in love with the beauty of whitespace. Do you really need those social icons? Do you need that sidebar menu? Do you need your email in the header, or just an icon of an envelope? Do you really need multiple calls-to-action? The answer, more often than not, is hell no.

Kill your darlings.

Here's how Alex Franzen keeps it sparse:

Add a CTA

It’s your job to tell people what to do next on your website. If they’ve landed on your homepage, their journey isn’t over. You need to keep them clicking and interacting with you. What’s the top action you want them to take? If you want them to complete a sale, then exploring new season items would be primary. If it’s to sign up for a course, you need their email address first so you can go in for the hard sell. Or maybe it’s to book a complimentary consultation. Just make sure your CTA is prominent.

Add your contact info

You want people to say an easy, confident yes to you, your business, and what you’re selling. If someone has to hunt around for contact info, they’ll likely get bored, and navigate elsewhere. You don’t have to use a gaudy phone number and demand to CALL NOW!!! A simple icon of an envelope is the universal symbol for ‘please, contact me’. Or just use your phone number. Use it. Don’t abuse it.

Here’s how KissMetrics gets you to contact them easily:

Crafting the perfect home page is something that takes time and experimentation. Test out what works best for you. I’ve shown you five different ways to do so – test out one of them, if not all of them.

SEO Copywriter Melbourne | Creative & Compelling Copywriting

I'm a Melbourne-based copywriter and feature writer. I provide creative keyword-rich web content, marketing content, feature articles, press releases and more for the fashion and lifestyle industries. Explore the menu to find out what I can offer you.